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Edition: |
pb |
| ISBN: |
9781583227053 |
| Publisher: |
Seven Stories |
| Release Date: |
2005-11-22 |
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ITEM OVERVIEW
In Insurgent Iraq, Loretta Napoleoni examines the climate in which Iraq's most notorious insurgent, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, opened a new front in the modern jihad. With the help of George W. Bush's war, al-Zarqawi was able to do what bin Laden could not: spread the message of jihad into Iraq.
Arguing that the American adventure in Iraq resuscitated a network rife with conflict, and birthed a new generation of post Cold-War mujahedin, the author presents previously unpublished documents from Afghanistan that reveal bitter disagreement between the Egyptian and the Saudi factions of al-Qaeda prior to 9/11. Within this dispute Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a working class, uneducated Jordanian, emerged to successfully create his own network of Islamist warriors based in Afghanistan, opening up a new front in the modern jihad in Iraq.
Napoleoni presents a chilling account of the regrouping of terror networks under a new leadership with a new agenda, tracing the assent of one of the globe's most enigmatic and deadly figures. Chronicling the evolution of Islamic extremism through the life of one man, she maps the growth of Arab disillusionment with official politics and the parallel trajectories of Salafism and Wahhabism as radical political doctrines. Napoleoni presents al Zarqawi as the flag bearer in Iraq of this new creed marked by sectarian strife, and identifies the Western forces that have encouraged this extremism, awarding al Zarqawi legendary status as the face of global terror.
"This tantalizing search to disentangle the threads of legend and reality in the strange tale of Abu Mos'ab al Zarqawi explores in depth the intricate and troubled Muslim world from which he emerged...It is a fascinating and subtle inquiry." -Noam Chomsky
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